ORCHARD PARK, NY -- Bills CEO Russ Brandontold WGR 550 radio Wednesday morning that 7,000 tickets still need to be sold to avoid a blackout for Sunday's home game against the Bengals.

"We're trying to move as many tickets as possible," Brandon said. "We've had a little bit of a spike in the past 24 hours."

But Brandon acknowledged 7,000 tickets is a lot of inventory to try to sell in a short amount of time. The deadline to avoid a blackout is 1 p.m. Thursday.

Brandon left open the possibility that the Bills may ask the NFL for an extension -- an extra 24 hours to try to reach a sellout.

This would be the earliest blackout for the Bills in more than a decade. The earliest blackout Brandon can remember in his tenure with the team was a late October game.

The Bills' remaining 3 homes games -- against the Chiefs, Jets and Dolphins -- are also at risk of being blacked out with between 7,000 and 10,000 tickets remaining for each.

For this weekend, the Bills have been aggressively marketing tickets. The organization is offering up to $15 off tickets through a promotion on the front page of BuffaloBills.com.

If the Bills don't sell enough tickets by the deadline, they would become the first team in the NFL so far this season to black out a game.

Other franchises have taken advantage of new NFL rules that allow teams to show home games on local television when at least 85% of tickets are sold; the Bills opted out of that, because it would have cost them money theymake from premium seating.

Brandon said the Bills are "a volume business" and rely on selling a lot of tickets due to their relatively low ticket prices.